Dining Expenses--How much can be Deducted?

I know if you were on travel, discussing business/dinner meetings you can place Dining Expenses on your taxes.

The question is, how much of it can I put? For example, if I go out to Olive Garden (3 miles away) because I don't feel like cooking tonight, can I place that Bill on my taxes and claim it as a dining expense?

Yes, if that dinner was a business event/expense, such as meeting with potential clients or meeting with partners of your business, you can legally deduct it. If you get audited, can they really prove/disprove your claim of a business expense for dinner? It'd be hard for anyone to disprove that. If you plan on claiming a lot of business dining expenses, take notes of who was there, where, and summarized what was discussed and when the business meeting took place so you'll be able to back it up.

The main thing to remember is if your business made $1,000 the whole year and you claimed $800 worth of dining expenses, it may raise a red flag.

BUT you can only deduct up to 50% of the bill

The 50% deduction mentioned by jazz99 is right on. I believe that you also only need a copy of the receipt if it is $75 or more. You will definitely want to keep a log of the who/what/where/when. It is very similar to keeping a log for business mileage deductions with your vehicle used for business purposes.

yes.
keep a notebook. put the date & all attending people and what business was discussed and staple the reciept to that page.

so nice i`m not us resident lol .... reading all this things make me laugh I paid only 2-3 months on my life taxes at this bastards and i`ll never pay anymore taxes . Or if i`ll be forced to do i`ll not pay anyway more than $1 ( YEAH ONE !)

Thanks for the help guys!

I have my appointment this Thursday...